Dr. Tony Gareau remembers well the night the longest winning streak in Alberta Junior Hockey League history ended.

“It was a game against Olds and we played in Three Hills,” said the member of the 1987-88 Calgary Canucks, who won 21 straight games that season.

“We played in this old barn and it was a real defensive game,” he added with a hint of sarcasm. “The final score was 13-12 for Olds and it was an unbelievable game that ended the streak.

“We were just in shock ‘How did we lose that?’ ”

The Calgary sports chiropractor chuckles at the memory, also recalling the state of the rink.

“One of the ends was the wall,” he related. “The goal judge was a guy in a cage on the wall who got up there with a ladder.”

Talk about a busy night.

As the Brooks Bandits close in on that hallowed record — looking to tie the mark with a win in Grande Prairie on Friday which would set up a chance to break the record in Whitecourt on Saturday — don’t expect members of those Calgary Canucks to get together for a toast, ala the 1972 Miami Dolphins, if they fall short.

“I wish them all the best,” said Colin Baustad, a utility player with the Canucks in ’87-88 who was used on defence and at forward. “Any time that a team can win that many is pretty impressive. Really, that’s unheard of in any sport.”

Much like the Canucks did that season when they won 51 of a possible 60 games and captured the AJHL crown.

From there, they swept the Dallas Drake-led Vernon Lakers in the Doyle Cup, setting up a date in the Western Canada Junior ‘A’ championship against a Notre Dame team boasting future NHL stars Rod Brind’Amour and Curtis Joseph.

“The scouting report that came out of that series was whoever would win that series would win the Centennial Cup,” said Gareau of a hard-fought series the Canucks lost in seven (as a consolation prize, Gareau, a defensive defenceman, had a hand in limiting Brind’Amour to a single goal in the series).

Notre Dame indeed went on to the national title and the Canucks settled for their spot in the AJHL record books.

It was an unforgettable 1987-88 season that players and coaches can only remember bits and pieces of.

There was starting goalie Buddy Brazier, who won an AJHL record 20 games in a row during that streak, and was a major factor in the playoffs, especially in the Vernon series.

“He’d throw a stick at you if you shot high on him,” recalled Baustad, describing him as a Kelly Hrudey type. “He’s one of those guys who loved to compete.”

Corey Hirsch, who would record 114 games in the NHL, was just a 15-year-old backup then — Baustad describes him as the team’s comedian.

Brandy Semchuk was picked in the second round of the 1990 NHL draft by the Los Angeles Kings.

Defenceman Ken Sutton went on to play 420 NHL games and would win a Stanley Cup ring with the New Jersey Devils in 2000.

And then there was Kraig Thorson, who rose to the Canucks through the Midget AAA Calgary Buffaloes ranks alongside both Baustad and Gareau. In a sad side of that team’s tale, Thorson would lose his fight with cancer shortly after the streak was snapped.

“A situation like that always draws a team together in some form,” said Baustad softly while recalling his friend.

In the end it was a band of solid players that came together for a season none of them will forget. Head coach Don Phelps remembers the type of team he had.

“At the end of the day you have to have good players . . . you need character players,” noted Phelps, who coached the Canucks from the late ’70s until retiring from the team in 2011.

“I think Ryan (Papaioannou, the Bandits GM/head coach) has done a great job of stocking his roster with good guys.”

Phelps, who also presided over two streaks of 16 straight wins, when he was at the helm of the 1974-75 Drumheller Falcons and the 1979-80 Calgary Canucks — marks that are also in the top 10 in AJHL history — said hot teams don’t count W’s, they just do what they need to do.

“You don’t think about the wins,” he said. “It’s a mindset. You’re good enough to win them all, so go do it. I think that’s what (Brooks is) doing.”

That said, streaks mean far less if they don’t end in a championship.

“It’s the end of the year that counts,” lectured Phelps.

“I think back to the teams where we’ve done that and it’s good to lose a couple.”

So he offers up a piece of advice.

“Let them get their record and then lose a couple, that would be my suggestion to Ryan,” he chuckled.

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